Legally Blonde

Today, I am going to analyze the feminist and the theory or concept that I found on the film of Legally Blonde. Themes explored in feminist theory include discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, oppression and patriarchy.

Theory Discussion

                     1.     Feminist

It started in 1920s, they were looking at women’s expression of her own subjectivity to film a feminist film. In the late 1960s, Feminist film theory matured, after the radicalized feminist movement of sexual liberation and political debate of female representation. It also a set of political practices seen through the analyses of the social position of women. Through this film we can find out the ideological and social construction of women in films because of reflection of the society.

According to Christian Metz, a French film theorist and best known for pioneering the application of Ferdinand de Saussure’s theories of semiology to film. He argues that viewing film is only possible through scopophilia. Laura Mulvey expanded on the concept of scopophilia to introduce visual pleasure and identification with the on screen male actor through the movie “The Gaze”. She states that the female actresses on the screen can be seen as an exhibitionist, as a symbol of eroticism and visual pleasure and thus holds the tendency of “to-be-looked-at-ness” and finally, a “bearer of meaning”.

2. Semantic and Syntactic

Semantic is the list of common traits and attitudes, characters, shows, locations. In other word is bringing us to visual aspects of the film. One of the visual aspects is mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene include locations or settings, makeup and costume, lighting and actor’s behavior and movement. In the other hand, Syntactic is about constitutive relationships between undesignated and variable placeholders, it is bringing us to thematic aspects of the film. It derived from the narrative of the film, such as types of Characters, heroes vs. anti-heroes and ideologies and structures of themes and conventions that found in the film. Additionally, the best way to know the genre of a movie is through the semantic and syntactic approach and both of them must be used complementary to each other as one.  

Synopsis

Elle Woods is a fashionable sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend Warner Hungtington lll. She decides to follow him to Harvard Law School to get him back, Elle rallies all of her resources and gets into Harvard and while she is there she figures out that there is more to her than just looks.

Analysis

This themes of film explored in feminist theory are stereotyping, Robert Luketic tries to counter attack the stereotypes of women in this film. They have been assigned a standard image to women in film. This assumption in matter especially talks about female repression by a patriarchal society. Social inculcation that girls are taught to grow up believing that they should stay at home beauty wives and take care child. On the other side, boys become the person who earns money to support the whole family.

This could be seen in the film when Elle Woods discuss with her family about she decided to study in Harvard Law, but the response from her family does not really agree with Elle to enroll in law school. Even though, Elle’s father stereotype the law school is only for people who are boring, ugly and serious and her mother even responded that Elle had won the place of the first runner up in Miss Hawaii Tropics Contest. This shows that Elle parent is not taking seriously on her daughter whose decide to study law and more concern of Elle being beautiful than smart.  

Generally, the male protagonist takes charge of the stage and is the main actor from most of the films. However, the director in this film has shifted the power to the female protagonist giving chances to the female protagonist.

In the first few scenes of the movie, Elle was being portrayed as a girl who heartbroken after dumping by Warner and can’t survive without him. That’s why she enroll to law school to be the girl who politically serious and suitable for Warner. Elle decides to prove to Warner that she can be the most valuable girl after Warner think that she can’t be smart enough and predetermine her can’t get the same internship as him.  

The most feminism in this film is Warner change his mind and get back to Elle when he realize that Elle has the potential to be a good lawyer after she win her first case. However Elle immediately rejected him. This scene shows that female is allowed to make her own decisions as male do and it breaks the stereotypes of social on women.

Lastly, the theme of stereotyping in this feminist theory where Warner, Vivian and her friends stereotype Elle not smart and repel her by saying her study group full.    

The Semantic and Syntactic that I going to talk about is the opening of the film. We could be seen that Elle is a character who cares about her appearances through this movie as an example: she is applying nail polish, combing her hair, taking care of her skin and dress the shoes genteelly. Through the setting of Elle’s room, audiences can anticipate the characteristic of Elle had, pink can be justified as the person who really a princess and dreamy girl. To enhance the personality of Elle had, the walk cycle of Elle took is also one of the approaches to expose the confident and girly. The setting of this film has Harvard Law School, Elle’s room, Delta Nu and the Neptunes Beauty Nook Hair & Nails. The Makeup and appearance of Elle compare to other low student is really different, the dressing of Elle is more pinky and brightness compare to other and this can show that she wants to look perfect in front of others.

Conclusion

This movie has bring the feminist theory into the film. The theme of the stereotyping in the feminist theory has applied in this entire film. This film also full of educational meaning and enjoyable film. Through this film, I learn about the concept of visual pleasure and going to apply it on my future work. 

The Blair Witch Project

Today, I will going to identify the modes of representation that I found on this documentary film, The Blair Witch Project.

Documentary

It is many ways to represent the film of documentary film. As recommended by Bill Nichols, we should look at documentaries through the techniques selected by filmmakers when they record/shape the events, which is the six modes of representation: Poetic, Expository, Observational, Interactive, Reflexive and Performative. A documentary film is a nonfictional film intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record, therefore audiences believe that documentary film depicts not imaginary but real event. Filmmakers assumed to observe the events the whole events as an objective of documentary films. The Way to approach documentary is shape events, instead of manipulating them and the choices of filming technique that made by filmmaker.

Theory Discussion

As I said in the post of March of the Penguin, Poetic is a way of representing the reality through series of fragmented visual and subjective impressions, loose association and incoherent acts. This mode of representation stress on tone, mode and affect much more than displays of knowledge or acts of persuasion. Then, the second of the mode of representation I going to discuss is Expository, This mode of representation address audience directly, providing visible information in the imagery and unseen information in the voiceover, they intended to descriptive and informative. The overall effect of this mode is objectivity, a direct and transparent representation. Besides, observational also is one of the modes of representation that suggest by Bill Nichols. This mode allowed the filmmaker to record without interruption or unobtrusively what people did when they were not clearly addressing the camera. This mode has no intervention by the filmmaker in the filmed events. This record consists of direct sound, available light, and base on observation without the manipulation or distortion of the event. Next, there is Interactive mode of representation, the filmmaker’s presence to be known to the audience by way of the filmmaker interacting with the filmed interviewees through this mode. The ways to make the audience notice the filmmaker’s presence are posting questions on/off screen as a mediator for interviewees and audiences. Furthermore, there is Reflexive mode of representation, this mode of representation is giving the audiences know that they are focused on film properties and film process by using the way of the filmmaker exposes the techniques employed for representation, challenging the documentary’s means of revealing the reality and truth. Lastly, performative mode of representation which applies the fiction style of the film to create a non-fiction film.

Synopsis

Three film students travel to Maryland to make a student film about a local urban legend... The Blair Witch. The three went into the woods on a two-day hike to find the Blair Witch, and never came back. One year later, the student's film and video were found in the woods. The footage was compiled and made into a movie. The Blair Witch Project.

Analysis

The poetic mode of representation could be seen in the “The Blair Witch Project” where Heathers explains the incident that happens at the Coffin Rock, she presents the incident by stressing out the mode and tone of the tragic incident in the Coffin Rock. This film also applies the expository mode of representation where Heather explains about the incident about a high number of children laid to rest in Burkittsuille. She used a professionally trained and authoritative voiceover this film. Compare to the other filmmakers Mike and Josh, Heather is much better doing the narrator of the film. Furthermore, this film used the Observational mode of representation, the scene when Mike accidentally knocked over the building stones, we can through the camera DAT from Josh was shooting Heather with not interrupted while she fixes the stone back. On the other hand, when they record the entire event in the forest also one of the observational with a direct sound and light was used in this film. The scene of Heather discovered a thing that tied with a lot of branches, she opened it while she was shooting the thing after she found out the thing was the ear of Josh, she shocked and the footage not clear and very hard to know what is it. Next mode is the interactive mode. This mode is applied by using interview. We can see Heather is interviewing those interviewees. For example, Heather do the interview with the people who live in Marybrown, Heather asked a woman to explain the details of the mysterious old women in the forest. The woman was describing the blair witch, Heather is the person throwing the ideas to the women when she is answering the questions to get the answer needed. Moreover, when they are asking the two fishermen about the blair witch at the riverine, Heather rephrase what they had answer but then is corrected by the old man and also the kid covers his mother's mouth when the mother was answering the question about the blair witch, it makes the whole film looks real.  Lastly, they exposed the equipment that they want to bring before doing the blair witch documentary as example foods, cameras and also the transport to shows the reflexive mode of representation. The camera can be seen on the scene like the footage of Josh recording Heather while testing the camera and at the same time Josh from Heather’s camera. Another scene is when Heather was confessing to her parent, Mike and Josh’s family by using her camera to record herself while crying. And also when they were running, we can know they used a handheld camera to record the documentary film because the footage was shaking when they are running in the woods.

Conclusion

The blair witch project has applied the modes of representation which includes the poetic, expository, observational, reflexive and interactive. Furthermore, the blair witch project is a mockumentary film because this is a fiction film. This film really inspired me, the technique of the camera shooting make the whole film feel realistic. 

March of the Penguin

  

Today, I will be going to identify the feature of a documentary that found on this film, March Of The Penguins.

Documentary

What audiences think of documentaries? Audiences assumed that the filmed events or incidents are not staged hence providing a realistic look. This is because of the mise-en-scene that present in the film. In additional, documentaries are non-fiction films, thus non-fiction film is not based on imaginations but real events. Documentary filmmakers are also assumed to observe the events and make an objective record of the events. In these times, the mentioned assumptions have been criticized. This cause the selection of techniques, equipment, footage, camera angles and other techniques which made by the filmmakers, and then losing the objective appeal. As recommended by Bill Nichols there is a way for us to look at documentary via their specific techniques that are selected by the filmmakers. Six modes of representation are the way they represent the documentary by Bill Nichols, there are includes the poetic, expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performative.

Theory Discussion

          1. Poetic

As quoted by Bill Nichols the poetic mode opens up new alternative forms on use to transfer information as compared to the straightforward method. This mode stresses mode, tone and it affects much more than the displays of information or acts of persuasion. These poetic documentaries began in modernism era and it presents reality through a series of fragmented visual, subjective impressions, incoherent act and loose associations.

      2.  Expository

This mode attempt to disclose information about the historical world itself and to see that world afresh by using Voice-of-God commentary and poetic perspectives.  This mode address audience directly, providing visible information in the imagery and unseen information in the voiceover. The objective is to provide information transparently. These aimed at being descriptive and informative to the audiences, thus they can understand what the movie is talking about.

          3. Observational

This mode has no apparent intervention by the filmmaker in the filmed events. Films to observe and record as the events unfold in real time, resulting in long takes and sound and exact light is recorded directly, establishing an intimate relationship with and a sense of the environment without manipulating and distorting the event, thus they're no dramatic or unusual moments. The overall effect is a neutral and non-judgmental appeal. For example: Place the camera on the wall to capture everything without edit like a security camera.

Analysis

The poetic mode of representation could be seen in the March of the penguins where the narrator describes the scene as the penguins in the fascinating mating ritual as the views recorded by the camera came to the close-up scene of penguin’s body and follow to the body curve of the penguin instead of shooting the process of mating ritual. Reason being to bring out the stresses on the mood, tone of romantic. March of the penguin documentary practiced the voice of God form of expository representation during the entire film. This voice-over is expressed the "thoughts" of the penguins and being informative to the audiences so the audience can understand what is going on to the penguin. Furthermore, the narrator was giving a kind of poem feels when he described what is happening in the film. This is because filmmakers want to attract the attention of audiences when watching documentary type films. To provide an authentic look, the film applied with the third method of the representation which was observational, the color of the film is kept in the original ones of Antarctica. In addition, the filmmakers did not interfere or manipulate the lifecycle of the penguin when the duck attack the baby penguin. The other scene would be when a female penguin had lost its chick in the battle against the cold wind. The chick lay dead on the ice ground and filmmakers did not attempt to bring it back to life knowing that this will distort the truth.

Synopsis

March of the penguin is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed by Luc Jacquet. It documents the emperor penguins of the South Pole journey to their traditional breeding grounds. The journey across frozen tundra proves to be the simplest part of the ritual, the penguin parent have to take turn to take care of their egg after the egg is hatched, the female must delicately transfer it to the male and make her way back to the distant sea to nourish herself and bring back food to her newborn chick. In this moment, the male penguins work together to protect one another and at the same protecting the egg from the extreme cold and keep the egg warmth, and incubate their eggs.

Conclusion

The conclusion, According to the research it is without doubt that the March of the penguins is a documentary film. This is proved because the film was using the way of representing the Documentary, there is the poetic, observational and expository mode of representation. Be honestly, the techniques of this documentary film had taught me a lot of new way to present a film and what need to be concern when doing the documentary film.